Some victims and survivors of those killed in the Aurora theater massacre cleared a major legal hurdle Wednesday when a federal judge ruled their suits against Cinemark, the theater’s owner, can go forward.

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson indicated that it wasn’t an easy decision but said the 10 lawsuits pose questions of interpretation and application of law.

“I suspect that many people, despite overwhelming sympathy and grief for the victims of the Aurora theater shootings might, upon hearing about these lawsuits, have had reactions like, ‘How could a theater be expected to prevent something like this?’” Jackson wrote. “I confess that I am one of those people.”

Jackson dismissed a claim of negligence but let stand a claim of wrongful death and another claim filed under Colorado’s Premises Liability Act.

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“We are looking forward to finally commencing discovery in this case and finding out what happened,” said former Denver District Court Judge Christina M. Habas, who is a lawyer for two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.

Neither Cinemark nor its lawyers, who asked that the lawsuits be dismissed, could be reached for comment.

The July 20 shooting killed 12 people and wounded 58 others. Survivors and their families have accused Century Aurora 16’s operators of a pattern of lax security that enabled the attack by suspect James Holmes.

Cinemark has argued that plaintiffs are saying the company “should have known” that such an attack would take place, even though law enforcement officers, personnel at the University of Colorado — where Holmes had been enrolled in its neuroscience program — and his family did not foresee such an attack.

In tossing negligence, Jackson was saying that the liability act, which covers injuries on someone else’s property, is the proper claim to proceed under, said attorney Karen Steinhauser, adjunct professor at the University of Denver.

“The court is saying because we are dealing with a landowner and an invitee to the premises, premises liability applies to this situation,” said Steinhauser, who is not involved in the case. Jackson ruled that wrongful death claims could be related to liability under the act and shouldn’t be dismissed.

“I conclude that these claims should not be dismissed so long as the Premises Liability Act claims are not dismissed,” he wrote.

In ruling as he did, Jackson was following in part a recommendation in January of U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty, who considered the question of dismissal in seven of the cases. Hegarty recommended throwing out negligence and in certain of the cases, wrongful death.

The plaintiffs have asked for damages in an amount that will “fully and fairly compensate each of them for damages, losses and injury.”